The other day I was catching up on what other foodies had been up to lately and saw this post from Maggie at Dog Hill Kitchen: Beer Bread Experiments and some Bean Salad. Beer bread. Hmm. At first it just sounded interesting but I’d never had it before and the recipe looked super-easy so I could not shake the curiosity. Beer bread? How does it taste? What’s the texture? And then last night it won and I baked up my very first loaf of beer bread.
I used the recipe Maggie linked to from Zesty Cook, and a can of Murphy’s Irish Stout. I only had 1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour on hand, so I used a little more white flour to make up the missing 1/4 cup (so used 1 1/4 cup wheat and 1 3/4 cup white instead of 1 1/2 of each called for in the recipe).
The bread smell was intoxicating. Nutty, buttery, bready. And the flavor matches the smell. It has a complex flavor and is really crumbly… and especially wonderful slathered in butter. I like Maggie’s idea of experimenting with different beers so I will be trying this recipe again sometime soon with an ale or lager. It is the easiest bread I’ve ever made; even easier than the No Knead Bread though the results are a different style. But if you love fresh bread half as much as I do, I recommend trying Zesty Cook’s beer bread.
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